rcj5365 Telly Savalas, a film,stage,and television actor whose career span more than four decades with television guest appearances ranging from "The Twilight Zone",to "The Virginian","Combat!","The Fugitive","Wagon Train",and "Hawaii Five-O" all the way to his Oscar nominated for Best Supporting Actor for the 1962 motion picture "Birdman of Alcatraz",to his roles in such movie classics as "The Greatest Story Ever Told",his villain role as Blofeld in the James Bond film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" to box office movie gold with "The Dirty Dozen","Kelly's Heroes","Pretty Maids All In A Row","Battle of the Bulge",and "The Scalphunters",and "Terror Train",to name a few.In 1973,Telly Savalas premiered in a weekly crime drama series that would change everything on television. On Tuesday October 24,1973,the television series "Kojak" premiered on CBS-TV with Telly Savalas as title character,New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak. A total of 118 episodes were produced in color. When it premiered in 1973,the show was on Tuesday nights at 10:00e/9:00c where it took the time slot of "Cannon" which was moved one hour earlier for all of Season 1. From Season 2 onward,CBS moved the series from Tuesday nights to Sunday nights for the remainder of its entire run where it was placed at the 10:00e/9:00c time slot until its cancellation on March 18,1978. Out of the 118 episodes that this series produced,only 35 episodes were produced for Season 1. For Season 2 thru 5,a total of 83 episodes were produced. Filmed entirely on location in New York City and in some segments on the Hollywood backlot of Universal Studios.The show was created by Abby Mann,who was an Oscar winning film writer for such classics as "Judgment at Nuremberg","A Child Is Waiting",and for "The Detective". Mann was also known for his best known work for such television drama anthologies as "Robert Montgomery Presents",and "Playhouse 90" Creator Abby Mann along with executive producers James Duff McAdams and James Moser set the television series "Kojak" around the daily operations of the New York City Police Department's Eleventh Precinct in Manhattan's South Patrol Borough with Telly Savalas as the tough and incorruptible Lieutenant Theo Kojak who have a knack of solving crimes and murders in his investigation of crimes with a tendency to break the rules to bring the criminals to justice. Theo not only had a sense of solving mysteries but Savalas also did it with a fashion statement with displaying a dark cynical wit to the role. In the early episodes of the series,and this was during its first season,Kojak is seen smoking thin brown More cigarettes. He substituted cigarettes for lollipops as an alternative where the lollipop made its debut in the Season 1 episode "Dark Sunday" that aired on December 12,1973:where Kojak lights a cigarette as he begins questioning a witness,but thinks better of it and sticks a lollipop in his mouth instead to cut his habit of smoking.His supervisor was Capt. Frank McNeil(Dan Frazer). Later in the series McNeil was promoted to Chief of Detectives in Manhattan where Kojak is the commander of the Manhattan South Precinct's Detective Squad. His squad consists of Detective Bobby Crocker(Kevin Dobson),Detective Stavros(played by Telly Savalas' real-life brother George Savalas),who originally used the name "Demosthenes" in the screen credits. Others were Detective Saperstein(Mark Russell,Season 1),and Detective Rizzo(Vince Conti,Season 1)who all gave Kojak support. Roger Robinson appeared in 12 episodes of Season 1 as Detective Gil Weaver. Only actors Telly and George Savalas along with Dan Frazer and Kevin Dobson remained throughout the show entire five-year run.The guest star roster consisted of new talent where future up and coming actors like James Woods, Harvey Keitel,John Ritter,David Proval,to Paul Michael-Glaser,Christopher Walken,Danny Aiello,and Richard Gere,and Kathleen Quinlan where making their marks where as other guest stars ranging from Lynn Redgrave,Forrest Tucker,Ann Jillian, Haywood Nelson, Eli Wallach,Shelley Winters,Ruth Gordon,Jess Walton,Tina Louise,Blair Brown,Paul Benjamin,Robert Hooks, Antonio Fargas, Janet DuBois,Hector Elizondo,Sheree North,along with former Bond girl Maud Adams,Paula Kelly,Isabel Sanford to Marla Gibbs,and Danny Thomas.The scripts were for this series outstanding,especially in the first three seasons were pinned by Abby Mann,Jack Laird,Robert Foster,and Halston Wells with superb direction from the likes of Jeannot Szwarc, Joel Oilansky,Charles S. Dubin, Leo Penn, Christian Nyby and Russ Mayberry. Even Telly Savalas directed several episodes of this series.Several episodes from this series as memorable classics from the premiere episode "A Siege of Terror",to "Dead On His Feet","Therapy In Dynamite","Last Rites For A Dead Priest",to "Halls of Terror","Web of Death","Cross Your Heart And Hope To Die","Lady In The Squadron",to the two-part episodes "A Shield of Terror",and "Kojak's Days" to others like "Where Do You Go When You Have Nowhere To Go",to the final episode of the series "In Full Command" as one of the great cop shows to come out of the 1970's. After the success of this series and 11 years after it was canceled by CBS, ABC-TV revised the series with Telly Savalas returning as Theo Kojak for a number of made for television mystery movies that ran from 1989 until 1992.

Armand in great measure, scene for one actor. his humor, his art to gives many nuances to character, each episode as a joke , audience complicity are pieces of a nice work. in same measure, it is a fragment of past sensitivity. with its naivety, passions and way to define reality. and, in essence, Kojac is a cage. for a very interesting actor who leaves in shadow of this clever, funny, ironic detective.today, Kojak is a sentimental trip around borders of an age. seed of memories, taste of lollipop, charming adventures, not credible situations and memorable music. a TV legend far from every attempt to create a new version of it. unique, powerful, seductive. a kind of iceberg. or only page of a not boring past.

mollyshearergabel Sure, Dragnet was in a category all its own and Naked City did pave the way for Kojak, but the grit was too shiny and fake. I grew up in NYC and later, after I moved away, when I watched Kojak in syndication I would get so homesick. What got to me the worst wasn't seeing landmarks like The Angry Squire or Washington Square, but by shooting on city streets, the NYC detritus was blowing down the sidewalk. Yes, that made me lonesome for home. Kojak was a show by, for, and about New Yorkers. Kojak's attitude was a New York cop's attitude, he was tough and glib and underneath that layer was the soft chewy center.Law & Order owes a huge debt to Kojak. I knew I would have to watch L&O because of what I can only describe as Kojakisms, and it is a disservice to Kojak (& to Telly) that he is only remembered for "Who Loves Ya, Baby?". Kojakisms were as rich and varied as literature.Here are some of my favorites: "That's the way the baklava crumbles, baby" "Whatever you do, don't you so much as double park anywhere near Manhattan South, 'cause you'll get a Hear Ye and a Hear Ye and a greeting you'll never forget." "Light a candle, baby; a Get Well card won't do." "...kiss off Goldilocks, your porridge is getting cold.""You could package that with a wrap-around deodorant and still come out with a stink." "...the Internal Affairs shoo-flies, they're gonna be all over us like a groom on a honeymoon. And lemme tell ya something, we all better be virgins or have a pretty good story." "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may; there's a chill in the air.' "The wine, it smells beautiful baby, but the company, strictly down the tubes." "Ya know what a vendetta is? It's when a whole bunch of people kill a whole bunch of people for years and years and years and like that!" " Yer no good! And that's the end of the story!" Absolutely one of the best shows ever.

Herag Halli If there was one Series on TV, that brought pure pleasure in watching was "Kojak." The dialog was fast paced, the greatest American slang and humor (so much so the audiences in England, were astounded with the slang), the greatest and smartest detective, the nasal and overbearing Captain Mcneil. brilliant direction that never sagged in the quality, the greatest side-kicks in the way of Stavros and Crocker. Those incredible stories series after series. The only intellectual TV show that came close to this was "Banaceck" with George Peppard, but that was a solo act that lacked the brilliance of an ensemble like "Kojak". This was a TV series, where things came together like a zig-saw puzzle. This is the "God Father" of the TV and the director is the "Coppola" of TV directors. If there is one set of DVD's in entirety that I would own, those would clearly be "Kojak" "All In The Family" and "Law&Order." Who loves ya baby!!